We Unite – Entertainment

Vizio M70-D3 Hands-on Review: Dude, Where’s My 4K Content?

My dad recently bought a 2016 M series Vizio and I’ve been lucky enough to play around with the TV. Aside from the weird soundbar setup issues he’s had, I have a few thoughts on the TV itself.

When it comes to 4K, seeing is believing. Unless you’re oddly comfortable spending a good amount of time obtaining a remote, configuring, and viewing one at your local Costco/Best Buy, just ignore all the improperly configured TV’s you see at stores and try to find a friend that has a 4K TV. If you do have a friend, make sure all smooth effect settings are disabled.

Sometimes your eyes don’t know the difference if you sit far enough. It’s important to verify your picture is 4K!

So now that you’ve setup your viewing experience, navigate to any 4K source like Netflix or YouTube and be amazed. Don’t forget to sit/stand close or you won’t be able to enjoy all the pixels. You’ll also notice (depending on your viewing conditions and light pollution) how nice color reproduction is. The colors really pop on my dad’s M70 and nothing looks overly saturated. Perhaps some tinkering will reveal more muted/natural colors.

Once the thrill of amazing picture quality settles, try not to panic about the lack of 4K content available. Sure, there’s plenty of movies you could rent, but this isn’t the same experience you had after getting a HDTV years ago. Remember when you plugged in your lousy cable box to discover a world of high def cooking shows, sports, and celebrity blemishes on variety show appearances? This is definitely a far cry from that. You have to actually hunt and know where to find 4K content.

It’s a guessing/waiting game to see what services will add 4K content. Hulu has yet to offer anything above 720p (66% of 1080p resolution. 33% of 4K!) so I wouldn’t hold your breath on them leading the pack on 4K.

It’s frustrating that Amazon has a good selection of 4K content but can’t get to any TVs that only have Cast ability. If only they weren’t so selfish in keeping channels limited to every other streaming device (Roku, game consoles, smart TVs including older Vizio models!, Fire players, etc.) except Google Cast. They truly hate Google. Let’s not forget that Amazon also refuses to sell Chromecasts.

HBO would be a great candidate for strong 4K content. They already handle sports and live comedy well. I’m sure fans would love to see bloody backstabbing deaths on Game of Thrones in 4x the resolution.

Another issue is that all major movie studios that are UltraViolet partners aren’t on the same page about making 4K content digitally. Warner Brothers, Universal, and Paramount are releasing on Vudu, but Fox, Sony, Disney are yet to release new titles in 4K for those that don’t care for owning physical media anymore. In the case of Sony, it’s possible to own the UHD digital rights, but Sony only lets you view their movies using their Ultra service that’s only available on their TV’s, a pretty selfish and stifling move for the technology.

Receipts

Uh. I’m missing the 4K version!

For the mean time, my dad seems pretty content watching random content on YouTube. It doesn’t seem like anyone cares for 3D that much these days, but hopefully content makers/providers embracing 4K gains momentum.

About Mark Azali

A simple search on google will help you understand what Mark Azali is all about. He loves talking with random people at conventions, Google Plus, and twitter. Besides entertainment, he has an unusual obsession with starchy foods. Follow him and discover just how crazy he is: @notjohnlee (Yes. That's a reference to The Replacement Killers)